I am working on Lt James Stewart who was inducted into the Royal Volunteers and later joined the Bombay Army and was killed on 04 Jan 1779 at Karla Bombay Presidency fighting the Maharratas in the First Anglo Maharrata War.He was promoted as a Captain and was evidently well liked by both his own countrymen but also by the Indian sepoys under his command.He was killed at Karla.He was buried by his men at Vadegaon. 1.Lt Stewart who was appointed by Royal Commission on *17 Aug 1760* by Royal Warrant . I have a problem however,in that two newspaper excerpts dated *07 Aug 1759* in the London Gazette and *07 August 1759 *Weekly Gazette both marked as coming as a communication from Whitehall which states *"The King has been pleased to add four companies to the regiment of Light Infantry or Royal Volunteers commanded by Colonel Crawford*.....*The King is also pleased to appoint the following gentlemen to be officers in the said regiment viz"*. There is a difference of about one year between the commissioning and the apparent induction of Lt Stewart as per newspaper communication.Was this period used for training and if so where was this training conducted?. 2.What were the colors of the Light Infantry or Royal Volunteers -this being the first British Light Infantry.? 3.Lt James Stewart was commissioned by the King. Would you be able to tell me as to who the Commissioner was through whom James Stewart purchased his commission? 4.I understand that a likeness of Capt James Stewart made by one of his own men, does exist - but it would seem the whereabouts of this image is obscure. Do you have any idea as to where this image might be? My thanks for any help you will be able to give me, John A. Thomas -- John John A.Thomas Dr. John A.Thomas,MD,FRCPath, FAMS

John, James Stuart, who died on January 04, 1779 at or near Vadgaon in the First Anglo-Maratha War is still remembered in Maharashtra for the bravery he displayed in the battle. The native Marathi speakers corrupted his name to 'Ishtur Phakda' (phonetically IShTur FAkaDA) in their speech and it is under this corruption that his name appears in the many of the contemporary documents. The meaning of the corruption is 'Stuart the Brave'. I had mentioned this fact in one of my old postings in this List, available at http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/INDIA/2004-06/1086468210 The corrupted form still survives in the Marathi language, though few can recall its history. I carried out a Google search entering this corrupted name in the Devanagari script and the search brought up a few hits. In the head-note of one of them mentioned the fact that a half-bust of Stuart existed somewhere and that a small memorial to him was built at Vadgaon by his soldiers. I could not follow this link further because the main text (a newspaper write-up of 2003) shows only garbage in which that newspaper coded the Devanagari text at that time instead of a readable Marathi text. If you enter the search term 'Ishtur Phakda/Fakda' in Google, you will read more about these facts. (BTW, 'Vadgaon' and 'Marathi/Maratha' are the correct spellings of these Indian words.) Arvind Kolhatkar, Toronto, June 05, 2015. On Thursday, June 4, 2015 9:23 AM, John A.Thomas via <india@rootsweb.com> wrote: I am working on Lt James Stewart who was inducted into the Royal Volunteers and later joined the Bombay Army and was killed on 04 Jan 1779 at Karla Bombay Presidency fighting the Maharratas in the First Anglo Maharrata War.He was promoted as a Captain and was evidently well liked by both his own countrymen but also by the Indian sepoys under his command.He was killed at Karla.He was buried by his men at Vadegaon. 1.Lt Stewart who was appointed by Royal Commission on *17 Aug 1760* by Royal Warrant . I have a problem however,in that two newspaper excerpts dated *07 Aug 1759* in the London Gazette and *07 August 1759 *Weekly Gazette both marked as coming as a communication from Whitehall which states *"The King has been pleased to add four companies to the regiment of Light Infantry or Royal Volunteers commanded by Colonel Crawford*.....*The King is also pleased to appoint the following gentlemen to be officers in the said regiment viz"*. There is a difference of about one year between the commissioning and the apparent induction of Lt Stewart as per newspaper communication.Was this period used for training and if so where was this training conducted?. 2.What were the colors of the Light Infantry or Royal Volunteers -this being the first British Light Infantry.? 3.Lt James Stewart was commissioned by the King. Would you be able to tell me as to who the Commissioner was through whom James Stewart purchased his commission? 4.I understand that a likeness of Capt James Stewart made by one of his own men, does exist - but it would seem the whereabouts of this image is obscure. Do you have any idea as to where this image might be? My thanks for any help you will be able to give me, John A. Thomas -- John John A.Thomas Dr. John A.Thomas,MD,FRCPath, FAMS ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to INDIA-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message